Welcome to the latest EBUG Bulletin.
- We were shocked and saddened to hear that our Treasurer, Fiona McLean, had died in December. Fiona had been a Committee member since 2022, and took on the Treasurer’s role in 2023. She quietly and diligently carried out the vital task of looking after EBUGs finances, which remain in a good state to this day. Her contribution as a committee member and office bearer will be missed. Our thoughts are with Fiona’s family and friends.
- On a brighter note, our Chair Mike Birch will be working with Napier University students on a project to look at how we can broaden our engagement with the bus user community. We are conscious that, while EBUG is well-known in local transport circles, there are probably thousands of regular, occasional, and potential bus users who have not yet heard of us. More details to come as the project progresses.
- We sent a written deputation to the Council’s Transport& Environment Committee on 12 December, which was considering a report on Council Transport budgets, which are ‘tight’. Our aim was to remind the Committee that earlier in 2024 we had suggested a couple of areas of work which could be dropped, being, in our view, unproductive and of relatively low priority; specifically ‘Mobility Hubs’ and ‘Mobility as a Service (MaaS)’. Our deputation explains why (page 9 here)
- In early January, EBUG featured in media coverage of our consultation response to the proposals for the next phase of the Leith Connections project, an ‘active travel’ scheme which ironically would make bus use less appealing. Coverage included the Evening News, Deadline News, STV and That’s TV. Our consultation response is available on our website. We would normally welcome active travel projects, but this example is so badly designed and disadvantageous for bus users that we cannot support it in its current form.
- We also had a guest comment slot (City Buses – a report card) in the February edition of the Edinburgh Reporter (p7 here).
- We are keeping an eye on the Council’s draft strategy for Princes Street and the Waverley Valley which touches on a number of topics of interest to EBUG: a ‘strategic’ review of the bus network, integrated ticketing and opportunities to reduce bus stop dwell times and the ‘future’ of the bus station.
- You may have followed the progress towards setting the Scottish Government’s budget for 2025-6. It now looks likely to pass, perhaps with a few changes. Amongst the welter of media coverage, little attention was paid to bus funding. We were particularly disappointed by the egregious Scottish Government spin regarding the Bus Partnership Fund.
To recap:
– in 2019: the Scottish Government launched the £500m Bus Partnership Fund
– in 2020: the Government paused it due to Covid
– early 2024: ‘paused’ it again
– in November 2024: the Scottish Government announced that the Bus Partnership Fund was ‘concluded’, after spending only £27m, largely on preparatory work (consultancy fees, finance etc), with very little on the ground. In its place would be a £10m ‘Bus Infrastructure Fund’, as part of a new budget line “Active & Sustainable Travel’.
If you feel this takes spin to a whole new level and makes a mockery of climate change goals, write to your MSP. - On 30 January, the Audit Commission published a report lambasting (page 3, key message 1) the Scottish Government’s lack of progress on one of its key targets (see also reporting by BBC report and Transform Scotland commentary). The history of the Bus Partnership Fund (see above) above is a good example!
- The January Transport and Environment Meeting received a report comparing the respective benefits and costs of a Light Rail/Tram versus Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) solution for the planned improvement to the public transport network from Granton to the Bioquarter. No overall conclusion is given but the evidence presented appears to show that a Tram solution would be better. It is recognised that further work is required before the final business case is presented. The report includes a statement from Lothian Buses, suggesting that – at least initially – a hybrid solution may be best with Tram in the north and BRT in the south. EBUG’s view remains unchanged: ‘conventional’ buses must be planned in from the outset, not squeezed in as an afterthought. Interestingly, the report notes about one scheme: “with no payment transactions taking place on vehicles, this is where the key journey time savings has come from (rather than through priority infrastructure).”